Psalms 32:1-2 and 2 Peter 1:2-9
It really shouldn’t surprise us at the great lengths the Bible speaks of forgiveness. Our entire message, faith, belief, and life is based on that one thing: forgiveness. And in the Bible, in all the various ways forgiveness is discussed, there stands out, above the others, a few things about forgiveness that are necessary and needful for mankind to recognize.
The basic realization that man has to recognize is: 1. We need forgiveness. We’re told this in God’s Word. The Bible says, "All we like sheep have gone astray, and every man has turned unto his own way." We’ve strayed from the Father, not keeping the demands of His law. It also says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." "Sin" means "missing the mark," and so, we have all missed God’s mark!
When you were a child, maybe your parents did this. They took you to a doorfacing, took a ruler, or yardstick or some-thing, and measured your height. They did that periodically to guage your growth. You were so proud when they would brag on how tall you were. And it was okay, until your "taller" brother or sister would step up. They would rub it in that they were taller than you.
But suppose your parents went on top of the house, and made a mark, and then told you, "I want you to be this tall. This is the mark I’ve set for you." No matter how tall you or your sibblings grew, you would never reach that mark. No one could rub anyone else’s nose in the fact that they were taller, because they were still missing the mark.
Well, you see, God has set a mark - a high mark. In fact, God wants us to be like Him! That is a high mark. And if we don’t reach that mark, we can’t go to heaven, or have eternal life. And the Bible says that, "All of us have sinned, and fallen short of God’s glory." One translation says, "We have all missed the mark of God’s perfection." That means, no one can brag about their height, because they are still well short of the mark.
God has set a mark of maturity and Spirituality, that He wants us all to attain. But no matter how much we try, we will still miss the mark. Many people don’t see the need for forgiveness, because they’re comparing their status with the wrong mark. Our brothers and sisters are not the standard. We’re not trying to reach their mark, or outgrow their mark. The requirement is God’s mark.
So, we need forgiveness. The Bible also tells us,
2. God has provided forgivness. God established a way to where we would not have to bear the punishment for failing to reach the mark. His solution? He sent Jesus to reach the mark for us. Jesus came and lived a perfect, sinless life, and reached the mark that God had set.
He then traded places with us, causing our life status to show that we had reached the mark, while He took our punishment for not reaching the mark. If we accept that tradeoff, we are released from the responsibility of not reaching the mark, because Jesus bore the punish-ment in our place.
And I don’t know if you understand that or not, because I wonder sometimes if we can understand God’s level of for-giveness. And in reality, we have not reached the mark, but because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we don’t have to reach the mark. The level and depth of God’s forgiveness is far beyond our ability to understand and comprehend. But all I know is that the Word of God says that it’s true, and I am persuaded to believe it!
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had some marks on the door facing this week, and when I pray for forgiveness, God not only forgives me, but Jesus applies the blood to the door-facing and covers my shortcoming! He takes His red blood to cover my black mark to make my heart as white as snow! I don’t understand it, but it happens!
And before you think that it’s only a New Testament realization, even the psalmist David - you know, the adulterer; David - you know, the murderer - even he knew the blessedness of forgiveness. And it caused him to say, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered!"
And, like David, some of us better be glad our sins are forgiven. We better rejoice that our sins are covered! That drinking, cussing, promiscuity, drug abuse, all of those inward untold, and unknown sins - you better be glad they’re gone! You ought to be the one saying, "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity." That means, He doesn’t hold me responsible for what I did. I blew it, I missed the mark, but He relieves me of the responsibility! Some of you ought to be praising God right now! You’re forgiven, it’s forgotten, and you’re free!
But there is something else about forgiveness that we’re told, and it’s something that many people don’t readily recognize or take seriously. It’s found in 2 Peter 1:9. It tells us, 3. You can forget forgiveness. This has really spoken to me this week. Peter said, by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that an individual can forget that their sins have been purged.
Now, none of us thinks that it would be us, but Peter qualified the statement even before he made it, by saying some other things in the previous verses. And by looking at those verses, we can see some ways that we can identify whether or not we have forgotten forgiveness. *Let me ask you: Have you forgotten forgiveness?
Look at vs. 2-8 with me. Now let me tell you something else, referring back to our inability to reach God’s mark. The thing that we must realize, is that the grace of God, in that He let Jesus swap places with us, is not a free ride. We are not thereby excused from all responsibility of growing.
The Bible says that we are to "grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ." It also says, "God has predestined that we be conformed to the image of His Son." If Jesus reached the mark, which was not a physical, but an inward, moral mark, we are to conform to His image, striving to "reach the mark, for the prize of the high call of God."
Peter says in v. 3 here, that "God has called us unto His glory and virtue (moral excellence)." But remember: We have all come short of His glory. We’ve missed the mark. But God desires to change our character, to mold us into the image of Jesus Christ.
Peter goes on to say, that, we have been "given exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature." In other words, God has provided a way that we can share in His nature, and he lists several things here that you need to posses, and be developing, in order for that to happen.
He says, "Give all diligence to develop faith, virtue, knowledge (of the Lord Jesus Christ - for how can you become like someone that you don’t know?), self-control, patience (perseverance), godliness, kindness (respect), and love." All of these we are to both presently, at all times, both possess and be developing. In other words, we have not perfected any of the above qualities, and so we are to diligently pursue their development in our lives.
Peter then tells us what the results are if we have them and if we don’t have them. First, v. 8 tells us the benefits of having them. "If these things be increasingly abounding in you, you will not be barren or unfruitful in the know-ledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, the Amplified says, "They will keep you from being idle in the knowledge of Jesus Christ."
Let me ask you something: Are you growing in your knowledge of Jesus Christ? If you’re not, then you are not developing these characteristics. If you are not developing in these areas, you may be idle in your understanding and growing knowledge of Jesus Christ. You may be dwarfed in your knowledge of Jesus.
And we could excuse it and say, "We have all missed God’s mark. It’s an impossible mark." At the same time, we are bound and eternally grateful unto the Lord Jesus, who took our place and our punishment. And God’s requirement is: If you accept that tradeoff, then you must spend and devote your entire lifetime striving to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
Peter said, "Give this all diligence!" These traits are not only to abide, but abound. They are to be developing in our lives.
Then, Peter says this (AMP): "For whoever lacks these qualities is blind, spiritually shortsighted,.....and has become oblivious to the fact that he was cleansed from his old sins." Simply put, if you’re not growing in these areas, the Bible says, and warns, that you may be guilty of forgetting that you are eternally indebted to God for His gracious kindness and forgiveness.
You don’t live in a constant awareness that "By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." You missed the mark, remember? You couldn’t reach it, remember? You would have never reached it without Jesus, remember?
And when we agreed to accept Jesus’ deal - His righteousness, for our sins - we entered into a lifelong promise of striving to become like Jesus. We committed, we made a covenant. And if these things are not developing in our lives, it is evidence, according to scripture, that we have forgotten that we are forgiven.
The importance is more than struggling to believe we’re saved. The point is that when these things are not constantly developing in our life, we have missed the mark once again! It places yet another demand on God’s gracious forgiveness.
So, let me ask you: Are you developing? Are you developing faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, kindness, and love? If not, or if you’re idle in those areas, you may need to remind yourself that you are forgiven, and you owe your life to becoming like Jesus. For, I owed a debt I could not pay; He paid a debt He did not owe.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live any longer thinking I’ve "FORGOTTEN FORGIVENESS."
